Games Design - Sound

Sound in a game can be one of the most crucial parts of a game. When talking about sound I mean both the ambient sound, the sound effects and the backing track of the game. Each one of these aspects all are important in their own way. Having good sound effects will make the game more real and believable. If you are playing a first person shooter and machine gun makes a "pew" sound effect then it won't be realistic, unless of course that is the amusing result you are aiming for. 

Sound effects can be simple little things that range from the 'waka waka' of Pacman to the Halo Plasma rifle. Each of these sounds are completely different from each other but each one does the job that is is supposed to do. 

Sound effects can be made with surprising ease, a great example is that sound of flesh being hacked by a sword. Take a cabbage and a big ol' butchers knife and SLAM and you have your sound effect. In a game sound effects that are well recorded and created will make a game more intense, for example if you are playing a zombie game and stab a zombie with a sword you will expect to here a squelch of some sort. If you do hear the gut spilling noise then you will be content and continue swinging but if you here a poor sound effect you won't stop playing the game but you won't get quite as excited at the chance to carve up the undead.

Soundtracks in games are, in my opinion, just as important as a soundtrack to a movie. Imagine watching Lord of The Rings or Star Wars without a soundtrack. Nothing that happened would be as dramatic and emotional. The "Imperial March" for Darth Vader is one of the most recognised piece of music in the film because of how iconic and dramatic it is.

You hear that and you immediately know that the Empire are about to show up on screen. The same ideals apply to a movie apply to a game. Music can make or break a game because having a good soundtrack will be noticed but not as much as if you have a bad soundtrack. The quote that comes to mind to describe this is, rather interestingly, from Futurama:

"When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all." 

A great, if not perfect example of a soundtrack that synchronises well with the game is The Elder Scrolls : Skyrim. The full soundtrack for that game is about 4 hours long (I know because I have it) I can imagine that every single player of Skyrim can recognise the main theme of the game instantly because of how strong a theme it is. The percussion leads in with the choir chanting the language of the dragons. A cresendo then takes the full orchestra into the iconic riff of the full theme and even listening to it in the main menu you feel inspired to fill the shoes of this fictional hero. However ask one of the players to listen to some of the ambient music for a cave and I can take a stab and say that very few of them will be able to guess that it is from Skyrim.

Personally I love a good soundtrack. It doesn't have to be a game soundtrack, it can be a movie soundtrack, a TV series soundtrack or in some cases a musical soundtrack. I can easily spend hours listening to orchestral music because it gives me something that other music can't and that is emotion and feeling. I'm not disputing that some music is sad, happy etc but there is just something about hearing a full symphony orchestra play as one living being that just makes me quite content and happy.